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(Hypertension. 2006;47:816.)
© 2006 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial Commentaries

Sleep and Hypertension

Burning the Candle at Both Ends Really Is Hazardous to Your Health

Brent M. Egan

From the Departments of Medicine and Pharmacology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC.

Correspondence to Brent M. Egan, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Rutledge Ave, RT 1104, Charleston, SC 29425. E-mail eganbm@musc.edu

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

The article by Gangwisch et al¹ in this issue of Hypertension identifies another significant health hazard associated with inadequate sleep. The authors document 2-fold greater risk for hypertension among adults in their fourth to sixth decades who sleep 5 hours each night. Whereas the independent risk of short sleep duration for developing hypertension is attenuated to 1.6-fold after adjusting for obesity and diabetes, short sleep duration is a risk factor for obesity and diabetes.^2,3

The investigators provide plausible mechanisms linking short sleep duration to hypertension.¹ Potential mechanisms include an increased blood pressure (BP) load resulting from prolongation of higher BP while awake and truncation of the BP dip characteristic of sleep. A decrease in sleep duration leads to both greater BP load¹ and prolonged exposure to an activated sympathetic nervous system,⁴ which could accentuate structural remodeling and augment renal sodium retention. Structural changes in key target organs participating in BP regulation including the kidney, heart, and vasculature could serve to perpetuate and accelerate age-related increases in BP, especially in those at risk.

In this regard, it is interesting to note a study of rapid eye movement sleep deprivation in spontaneously hypertensive, normotensive Wistar-Kyoto, and borderline hypertensive rats, which are the first generation offspring of a cross between spontaneously hypertensive and Wistar-Kyoto rats.⁵ Rapid eye movement sleep deprivation raised BP only in borderline hypertensive rats. Additional evidence from human studies further suggests that sleep deprivation causes physiological changes that can raise BP. For example, among sleep-deprived and stressed college students preparing . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Short Sleep Duration as a Risk Factor for Hypertension: Analyses of the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

James E. Gangwisch, Steven B. Heymsfield, Bernadette Boden-Albala, Ruud M. Buijs, Felix Kreier, Thomas G. Pickering, Andrew G. Rundle, Gary K. Zammit, and Dolores Malaspina
Hypertension 2006 47: 833-839. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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